A reminder that tonight’s game has been moved to Comcast Sports Net Plus 2 (or Plus, Plus). Most cable networks are carrying it on the channel normally airing Total Living Network. Go to whitesox.com for a complete listing of where to find tonight’s game on your cable network.

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Yes!!! And I was just gonna ask you about the BA start. I’m excited! Can’t wait to see what happens. I think he’ll be just fine.

The reason I haven’t been on lately is because I have an exchange student. And, of course, we’re going to the game! We’re going on Friday. So I guess I was wondering if there were any sorta services at the park for people who don’t speak english. Because… I don’t know how to teach people to play baseball in French!

Alright, we stuck with that one and won, I’m happy. Here’s my concern. I feel like when our offense shows itself to be strong, our pitching doesn’t try to match it, almost like it lets the offense do most of the work. Then when the offense doesn’t show itself, the pitching dominates. Remember how bad the offense was in the tremendous pitching of ’05 (although it was timely hitting), then last year we were offensively dominant, but awful pitching. I hope we can find a middle ground. I’m glad we won tonight.

Thornton has been a concern so far, but what can we replace him with internally? Logan is not the answer and it looks like Sisco is not ready to be that guy. Hopefully Matt and Coop can work it out and get back to where he was last season.

They’ve already been directly responsible for blowing and losing three games where the Sox took a lead into the 7th inning or later (4/4, 4/10 and 4/22) and there has also been three more games where they coughed up the lead after the 7th inning only to have the Sox win the game (4/5,4/19, 4/24).

That’s SIX games people out of 19!!!!!

Like I said the first week of the season, Thornton is the prime candidate for the 2007 Cotts / Politte implosion award. It continues to look more and more that 2006 for him was as big a fluke as 2005 was for Cotts and Politte.

I’ll take the win, I’m happy the Sox are three games over .500 but this bullpen situation is getting absolutely ridiculous.

i think for the most part the bullpen has been good. it has kept us in many games that we eventually have won.

nice hitting by crede, pablo, uribe, aj tonight. would like to see more out of dye.

this is a game that we would have lost last year. im starting to believe this might be a good year for the sox. i like how they fight back after being down early. hopefully we get todays game in vs the tigers!

I agree with you, kenwo4life. That was the kind of game the Sox would’ve lost last year. KC gave the guys fits last year. There are definitely areas of concern, but let’s face it, the Sox are in a virtual tie for the lead in what is arguably the most competitive division in baseball, in spite of their ups and downs. After that series in Cleveland a couple weeks ago, I didn’t think this team could beat anybody. There have been several games in which the bullpen has carried the team, so let’s not get carried away. Ugly road wins are just that, WINS.

Nobody has a perfect bullpen. You can’t ask them to bail you out every single game. Every once in a while, you need the starting pitcher and the hitters to work together to give the bullpen an easy night.

Thornton is a question mark. The rest of the bullpen has numbers that I would be more than happy with if they remained the same for the rest of the season.

I’d say the bullpen has been a little overworked as of late, too. Once the starters get a little more stretched out and go longer in games, the bullpen will straighten out a little. What about Jenks? Had a pretty good ninth, no complaints there!

You are exactly correct this is the toughest division in baseball…which is why little things will decide who wins it.

That’s why you simply CAN’T blow games that are already in the win column, it’s already happened three times and April which hasn’t even ended yet. Add in three more games the bullpen coughed up only to have the Sox eventually win the game and the numbers speak for themselves.

Yes bullpen ERA, bullpen strikeouts and bullpen saves are important but in my opinion, giving up wins and letting teams back into games is the biggest stat of all and in that one this bullpen is mediocre right now.

I don’t like the Cubs, but I do like Prior and it is unfortunate for him to have so many injuries. Just think, the Cubs could have drafted Joe Mauer instead of Prior…Brandon McCarthy update: 1-3 10.20 ERA. I am liking the trade more after every start. I hope Danks gets his first win tonight.

There is an old adage in sports in general, and baseball in particular… Not every game is a candidate for the category of Memorable Games…there are gonna be some memorable, for one reason or another…but for the most part,most games are either routine or plug ugly…
Last night went into the plug ugly category, from the weather on down to the way the two teams played…but,as

Brother Devereux puts it, as long as it winds up in the correct column,no matter how,it still counts…

To Brother Liptak out in the wilds of Idaho…Mark, there are still 22 weeks and a day remaining on the championship schedule…and a lot of things, good and bad, can still happen…For now, though, don’t sweat the small stuff…that is for Cooper,Ozzie and Kenny to do…all we can do is sit there and either watch through fingers covered over your eyes, or sit there and see what happens, with eyes wide open…

However, the beauty of sites like this is that there is the forum to express opinions like yours,based on cold,hard facts…

But just remember what the man said(and I forget which man said it…)… “There are three kinds of liers…liers, damned liers…and statistics.”…

Mark’s stat of 6 blown leads after the 6th inning is double the MLB average of 3. In 2005 we were the MLB average of 19 (basically 3 per month). Over the last two years the team with the highest amount of leads lost was 21. We are on pace for 51. Granted not all those games will be losses because we do have Joe Joe the late inning hero, but that is a scary stat.

Well, the bullpen is mediocre if you want to pick out one stat and ignore the rest of the picture.

The bullpen has pitched in 18 games. They entered the game with the Sox trailing 8 times, and the Sox ended up winning three of those games. They entered a tie game one time and the Sox won that game. They entered the game with the Sox leading 9 times and the Sox ended up losing three of those games. So, there have been 7 games where the bullpen changed the outcome of the game, and in those games the Sox are 4-3.

Now, look specifically at the 9 games where the bullpen was entrusted with a lead. In only one of those 9 were they handed a lead of more than 2 runs. Four times they got a 2-run lead and four times they got a 1-run lead.

A bullpen with an overall ERA of 3.00 is considered very good. On average, a bullpen with a 3.00 ERA in a two-inning outing will only be perfect about half of the time, will allow one run about 37% of the time, and will allow two or more runs the other 23%.

In other words, even a very good bullpen is going to blow one run leads about half the time and will blow two run leads about one fourth of the time. It’s to be expected.

The problem is not with how often the bullpen is blowing leads, the problem is that the bullpen is not being handed larger leads often enough.

The Sox are on pace to entrust their bullpen with 34 one-run leads and 34 two-run leads. That’s too much pressure to put on a bullpen, no matter how good they are.

In 2005 we were not really a massive run producing machine and managed to only blow 19 late inning leads. We won so mnay one run games that year because our bullpen just locked people down. I don’t necessarily agree with the stat 100%, but I do find it interesting that the most by a playoff team over the last two years was 21. As the hitting gets better I’m sure this number will average out a bit.

Blake why do you feel sorry for Prior he is a cheater. I know he has never admitted or been proving guilty of taking juice, but it’s obvious. My cousin is a strength and conditioning coach at UIC he says everyone of his “injuries” are from CHRONIC steriod use. You know those little muscle or tendon problems he was going through all signs of coming of juice, this is not speculation by a Cub hater, which I am, but from a guy with a PHD in physical therapy and stregth&conditioning. Also the fact he looks about 20 pounds lighter in his upper body.

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